I've more than come to terms with Paul Masdival's vocals, so I won't bother mentioning them further. What I will say is that they seem to be drawing too much influence from other bands without adding any of their own personality to the songs. Lyrically it sounds like Masdival is trying too hard to be Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The intros to True Hallucination Speak and The Lion's Roar sound suspiciously like Mastodon. Sean Malone sounds like he was expressly told to write Joe Lester (of Intronaut fame) -esque basslines. Masdival's tone is lacking something. A certain warmth or anything that would make it memorable. Sean Reinert's drumming is solid as always, but he just seems off in the mix, like the microphones were just a tiny bit too far from the drums.

I loved the album, my early thoughts from the streaming are that its as good as Traced in Air. I'll have to listen to it more but no problems for me, and I really don't hear the Mastodon influence at all, still sounds very much like Cynic.

I loved the album, my early thoughts from the streaming are that its as good as Traced in Air. I'll have to listen to it more but no problems for me, and I really don't hear the Mastodon influence at all, still sounds very much like Cynic.

That´s pretty much how I feel about it too. They still sound unmistakably like Cynic although they´ve developed their style a lot since "Traced in Air", but that really shouldn´t come as a surprise if you are familiar with the two preceeding EPs (and the Aeon Spoke material), which also featured a less metal oriented sound. Personally I love Paul´s vocals (nice Beatlesque harmonies too) and I find the odd lyrics somewhat charming. If you expect this to be technical/progressive metal you´ll be very disappointed though.

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